holidays
10 Tips for Surviving a Parade With Kids
Let’s talk parades. I LOVE parades, which just proves I’m a complicated individual. I don’t enjoy hanging out with large groups of people. I’m not very patient. And did I mention ALL. THE. PEOPLE? Yet, I love parades! It’s probably nostalgia knocking on my door. I remember going to a 4th of July parade as a little girl with my grandma and cousins. I remember exactly where we’d sit on a curb with a few trees doing a terrible job of shading us from the July sun. I remember cowgirl princesses on horses and beauty queens in convertibles doing that elbow-elbow-wrist-wrist wave as they slowly passed by. There were restored hot rod cars,…
Irish Flag Centerpiece
Our celebration of St. Patrick’s Day would not be complete without showcasing the Irish flag on our dining room table! Isn’t this Irish Flag Centerpiece festive? My flag holders are milk bottles filled with green mung beans, white basmati rice and orange split lentils. My son and I poured the dry ingredients in the milk bottles in color order as it relates to the stripes on the Irish flag. The simple design of the Irish flag was very helpful in this regard. The Irish flag, also known as the Irish tricolour, has been in existence since 1848. However, it didn’t become Ireland’s national flag until the rebels hoisted it over Dublin’s General Post Office during…
Quick and Simple St. Patricks Day Wreath
My kids are counting down the days until they get the day off from school to celebrate Ireland’s biggest holiday – St. Patrick’s Day. Waiting is oh, so hard! Until then, they did help me make a super simple felt wreath to decorate one corner of our home. We traced shamrocks onto green felt, then cut them out and hot glued them on a wreath form. Super simple and not overly obnoxious! Those are my two main criteria when it comes to holiday crafting. I used a wire wreath form like this one so I could easily remove the felt shamrocks if I want to reuse the wreath form in the future.…
St Patrick’s Day Craft: Burlap Pot of Gold
Happy first day of March! Who’s excited? March is a big month on the little island I currently call home. Ireland. I don’t say that every time to rub it in. I only mention it, again, on the off chance someone is joining the blog today for the first time. It could happen! Anyway, there’s this little holiday on the 17th with leprechauns and drinking. Lots of drinking. You might have heard of it. Well, have you heard of island time? Ireland operates on its own sort of island time. I just started to see advertisements go up for St. Patrick’s Day events. The local newspaper is still asking for entries…
Free Printable: Love is All You Need
Have you ever noticed Valentine’s Day is quite polarizing? Depending on life situations, people either love the holiday or want to kick it to the curb. Since the 14th century Valentine’s Day has been associated with romantic love and romantic love is fabulous. Handy Husband and I celebrated 18 years of marriage a few days ago, so I have a deep appreciation for all things romance. I also have an even deeper appreciation for all things beginning and ending with “Honey, I’ll do the dishes.” But let’s not talk about me. What I want to say on this Valentine’s Day Eve in the mushiest way I know how is THANK YOU. Thank you to each…
6 Valentine Card Ideas For Girls or Boys
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Ready, set, panic! No, no. Don’t do that! Here are some fun DIY Valentine’s Day cards that I think both boys and girls would like. My kids would be content picking out themed Valentine’s Day cards from the store, but they also like to sit down and craft with mom, so I’ll take that time with them as long as it lasts. Balloon Card It doesn’t get easier than this idea for a balloon card! This idea is via A Pretty Cool Life, which is a pretty cool name for a blog. There is not a balloon in this world that my kids have met…
Christmas Tree 2016
It’s hard to wrap my mind around how fast time flies. We’ve been in Ireland almost 6 months. We’re getting ready to celebrate our first Christmas in this beautiful country. I’m convinced that the true beauty of Ireland is not its scenery, but in the spirit of the people who have welcomed us with open arms. Now, let me segue out of the mushy stuff into some practical matters. We downsized DRASTICALLY when we moved from the United States to Ireland. I cannot emphasize how drastically. Have-no-furniture-to-sit-on drastically. One of the things left behind in the downsizing was our fake Christmas tree. Haters can hate, but I am firmly in the fake…
My Christmas Decor Hacks
I’m not sure if hack is the right word. How about here are three of my favorite Christmas decor work-arounds? ALTERNATIVE TO GARLAND Don’t have the time, patience, space or money for a Christmas garland? No worries. Free greenery clippings from your yard, or the neighbor’s yard, or the park (can you do that??) placed in a shallow bowl can achieve a similar effect. DON’T HAVE STOCKING HANGERS? NO PROBLEM. I do have Christmas stocking hangers, but one of them is broken and I haven’t found anything else I like better for hanging our Christmas stockings. Last year we used hooks screwed into the bottom of the mantel. That won’t work this year and…
Christmas in the Foyer Part 2: The Wall I Never Show You
It’s important to take pictures you see online or in magazines with a grain pound of salt. You only see certain angles at specific times of day. You don’t see what’s 2 inches outside of the cropped photo. In the case of my blog, there’s an entire wall I’m pretty certain I’ve never shown you. Or at least I haven’t shown it to you since we moved in. That’s because it’s not the star of the show. It does work hard though. It holds coats and shoes and sometimes mail. (Or “post” as people in Ireland call mail.) This wall is immediately to the right of the front door. It…
Christmas Mantel – Peace
I brought my scrap wood dove out of storage for the Christmas season. He’s fragile, but resilient. He just needed a little time and some wood glue to pull himself back together. Before long he was flying high above our Christmas mantel again representing peace, hope and love. As Christmas approaches and world events unfold, peace has been on my mind lately. Having peace doesn’t mean that we never disagree. Having peace doesn’t mean that there are never endings. Peace stems from the ultimate realization – a belief at the very center of one’s core – that as human beings far more binds us together than tears us apart. That there must be…
